Jeeps Showcase

The links to posts below show jeeps grouped by models, condition, and other ways. Some of these jeeps are for sale and others have been sold. If you are unsure whether a vehicle is still for sale or not, email me at d [at] ewillys.com for more info.

Parts Tips

Buying Tips

Importantly, the allure of buying a project jeep can be romantic. The reality of restoring a jeep can be quite different, expensive and overwhelming without the right tools and resources. So, tread carefully when purchasing a "project". If you have any concerns about buying a vintage jeep, or run across a scam, feel free to contact me for help, comments or concerns .

What I really liked was the before and after pics. In the before pic, you can see how he arranged the parts so he could visualize what he was building. Any of us who have done projects like this where there aren’t specific instructions/directions can relate. I can’t tell you how many times I put on and took off the jeep body to make sure it fit in the right spot, not too far forward, not too far back, not to high, was it straight — then stand back and ponder and take a few pics and adjust and ponder …. details, details, details. It’s all part of the fun :-).

Despite it’s fun design, this wasn’t just some show vehicle. When Randy was finished, he drag raced it at 100 mph. Now that’s a HOT Rod!

I’ve included the before pic (taken by Randy’s wife). You can see the after pic result and read all about the transformation at Popsci.com.

An article in the Green Bay Press-Gazette on November 18, 1962, warned readers not to be surprised if they were flagged down at a Green Bay & Western (GBW) railroad crossing by a jeep. The article goes on to describe that GBW bought 2 1962 FCs for use on their railroad, some of the Jeep’s features, and how they would be used. The history of these FCs (shown below) and the GBW in general can be found at the Green Bay & Western Lines website.

One image below appears to be a rough scan showing the two FC-170s at the time of purchase. I’ve added a link to the 2nd photo which shows the FC awaiting restoration as of 2005 (a note under the image asked that it not be reproduced without permission).

From the Sunday News (and Duke University’s Digital Collection Archives) comes this October 7, 1945, contest advertisement. What I find very interesting is the color scheme. I do not recollect seeing any jeeps with this color scheme. Does anyone know if this was a custom color scheme of some kind for Pepsodent or simply an artist’s creative license?

There are some new Bantam and MB testing photos at Life Magazine. There are some great closeups of the Bantam. Note the first pic — I believe that is the first ‘jeep’ ever stuck in the mud; it surely wasn’t the last! All six of these photos were taken by David E. Scherman in 1940.

The first one is from the Virgin Islands in 1958 and shows a DJ-3A in the center of the picture and a DJ-3A Surrey at the lower left. The second image shows 5 or more Surreys sitting at rental lot Hawaii, the surrey in center front
is a 1963 with 13″ tires and babymoon hubcaps.

Paul forwarded a link to me regarding ‘justacarguy’s’ website. Specifically, Paul pointed out a page of old rail cars — literally automobiles on wheels. There were a couple pics of jeeps and many more of cool old cars. Check out all the pics here.

I have to say I’m a fan of Canada and Canadians. Growing up in Seattle, Canada was only a 3 hour drive away, so I’ve crossed the border many times. On the other hand, the Canadians keep sending me back … I don’t know what that’s about …

When I was 20, I had an opportunity to work in the San Juan Islands for a couple years, at the north part of San Juan Island itself at Roche Harbor (map). Many Canadians boated over to enjoy Roche’s hospitality, perhaps as many as half the tourists were Canadian. Because I had friends with boats, I had the opportunity to boat across Haro Strait and visit Victoria, BC, Canada.

There are four things I know about Victoria from personal experience: 1) The Royal BC Museum was a great place to visit; 2) There used to be a great knife store downtown that gave good discounts to chefs (I still have a couple of those knives); 3) There are places to drink in Victoria (which for a newly minted 21 year old was pretty fun); and 4) There were some very nice strips clubs downtown (which for a newly minted 21 year old … well, you get the picture).

I’ve also spent time in Vancouver. During one memorable, well mostly memorable, experience, I attended the 1986 World Expo (and it turns out countries still hold world expos — the 2010 Expo is in Shanghai, China), which took place at the downtown facilities which held the recent Winter Olympic Games. Me and 2 of my friends trekked up to the ’86 expo, without hotel reservations of course; instead, we spent two nights camped out in Vancouver. The first night was on some land being developed right near downtown. We just set up the tent, and jumped in (and a whole lot of traffic woke us up early the next morning). The second night we found a walking trail a little farther out of downtown and jumped in the tent. Oh, to be young again ….

With these thoughts in mind, I decided to do a search of flatties and Canada and happened across the antiquewillys.com website. After some looking around, I found a photo gallery, where I came across this image, posted by “waggone”. I personally love to see those desert dogs reaching for the sky!

Check out this image. I found it at a blog called “An Uncommonplace Book“. Look at all those employees!! The sign in the background reads, “Buick Motor Co, Largest Automotible Manufacturers in the World. Annual Capacity 40,000 Cars”

Somewhere at my parents house buried under time and boxes, there may still be a few pictures of a drag strip I had when I was kid. Built from presswood, the home-made drag strip stretched about six feet long and maybe a foot wide. It was painted black with white lines down the middle. The left side of the drag strip was built on top of a series of three shelves where I could store all the model cars I built, except for the two ‘cars of the week’ that I would place on my drag strip.

I loved to build model cars, especially wild street machines. The Boot Hill Express is one I remember building. You can see in the image below, that I found on oldtoystuff.com, an example of the Boot Hill model. I’m sure I built a few of these others, such as the street “T”, as well as many others not pictured.

It’s not that I was ever a highly anal model builder, reveling in details and accuracy. No, I just liked putting them together, to make the pieces fit, to get it finished so I could put it on my race track.

So, I do have a certain understanding of the skills necessary to make a really fine, high quality model — skills I am perfectly at peace saying that I don’t possess. Of course, as a dad, I figured that if I enjoyed building models that my kids would enjoy it.

And it was then that I ran smack into rule #27 of parenting — “sometimes the things I liked to do as a kid aren’t ‘cool’ anymore” (and I probably shouldn’t open up the debate about whether model building was ‘cool’ even when I was a kid). So, when I bought my boys a model for christmas a few years ago, they gracious said thanks, and then avoided them for the thrill of xbox. What’s a dad to do?

Speaking of models, I just discovered a series of books that appear to come out of the Czech Republic called Jeeps in detail. The MB edition was published in 2009, so the other books might be quite new as well.

Designed for modelers, but likely excellent for restorers as well, these books are 50+ color photos of different jeeps that are in the hands of Czech private collector(s).

When we last checked in with Gary, he’d just bought this CJ-5 off of Craigslist. Well, Gary’s been busy this winter getting his Jeep ready for fun this year. He’s got some work left, but his progress looks great. Thanks for sharing!

“Up for auction is a really cute little single-seat, cedar squirrel feeder fashioned after a 1942 Willys Jeep used during WW II. It’s fun to watch the squirrels sit in the driver’s seat and eat. And the best thing about this Jeep is it runs on corn cobs, so you won’t go broke at the pump! We have the one pictured outside our window and the squirrels just love it.

The feeder is loosely fashioned after a photo of a 1942 Willys my 11-year-old son and I came across. We thought it would be fun to turn the photo into a feeder. So, we drew it out, cut it out, and (after a few redesigns) had us one of the more unique squirrel feeders on EBay. These feeders have quickly become one of our biggest sellers.”

Paul made good progress recently with the radiator installation. I’ll let him explain …

Paul writes, “During the past few days I’ve been busy scrounging metal, making parts and playing with the welder but the end result is the Willys has an M 151 radiator installed along with a V type firewall to radiator brace and a hood hold open rod. I also picked up my new radiator from the local military surplus yard in addition to a used shroud and the necessary lower mounts. The new radiator will reside safely in the house until it’s time to be installed after I quit taking things apart for modifications and redesigns but the size of this radiator is just about perfect for the room available under the hood. I’ll have to spend some time at the local autoparts store mixing and matching coolant hoses before the engine is plumbed to the radiator and I also have to go shopping for a low profile electric fan (a puller is what I’m hunting for) but both of these tasks can be solved with reasonable amounts of money so I’m feeling pretty good with my progress so far. ”

A trip to the local Military show turned out to be just what Paul needed. BTW Paul, you don’t owe us anything. You are putting on a show for us up there in “The Last Frontier (which is the official state nickname)”. No doubt there’s a few readers who might benefit from this mod.

Paul, take it away! “This past weekend the local military vehicle collectors had a show at a car dealership near my house for the general public and it was free so I went. Before leaving the house I grabbed my camera and a steel tape just incase I ran across a shining gem of a radiator nestled among the antique olive drab metal. In addition to the WWII Willys and Ford Jeeps on display, the Dodge command cars, M 38’s and M 38 A1’s there were a couple of M 151’s and one of them had it’s hood up. Naturally I began checking out the radiator, first by eye and then measuring the height, width and thickness and ending up on my back under this Mutt where I noticed the radiator was a bottom mount. Most interesting!

The original M 38 radiator is a bottom mount with a top mount brace rod, it’s 21 1/4 inches wide by 19 inches high and 5 inches thick. These dimensions are overall and they include the radiator cap. The core dimensions are 13 inches high by 20 inches wide and 3 inches thick.

The M 151 radiator is a bottom mount with a top mount brace rod, it’s 20 1/2 inches wide by 19 inches high and about 4 inches thick (I didn’t measure the metal shroud so I’m guessing here) and once again these measurements are overall. The core is 13 1/2 inches high by 19 1/4 inches wide by 2 inches thick.

Both radiators have a drivers side inlet (top) and a passenger side outlet (bottom).

Gentlemen, we have a winner !!!!!!

For the past 55 years E. A. Patson Parts and Equipment has been dealing in new and used surplus military vehicles and parts here in Anchorage but Elmer Patson is 86 years old (his son, Rod, is only 63 but he’s been working at the business since he was 12) and would like to retire so everything’s for sale. I asked about M 151 radiators and they have both new and used radiators. I was able to borrow a used radiator so I could do a bit of metal massaging and fabricate a lower mount and the top brace rod and when the snow melts some and they can get into one of their outbuildings where the new radiators are stored I’ll buy one of those. For now this used radiator will allow me to continue my progress with the Willys resurrection until the end of March when I’ll officially declare the winter to be over and it will be time to do outside (summer) projects.

Thanks again to all the Willys fans for their much appreciated suggestions, ideas and help. I look forward to the day when I can return the favor, but until then I owe you. “